Toyota, Honda Lead Gains in Japan’s Sales on Subsidy

A member of the showroom staff walks near a Toyota Motor Corp. vehicle displayed at a showroom near the company's headquarters in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

Sales of cars, trucks and buses, excluding minicars, rose
15 percent to 333,403 vehicles in July from a year earlier, the
Tokyo-based Japan Automobile Dealers Association said in a
statement today. Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, sold
161,444 units, excluding Lexus-brand cars, up 19 percent.

Japan’s auto sales started recovering in August 2009 from a
yearlong decline as government rebates and tax cuts for fuel-efficient vehicles revived demand. The incentives helped raise
sales by about 600,000 vehicles last year and may increase them
by about 900,000 this year, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers
Association said in December.

“Sales in Japan and in Europe can’t be expected to rise
that much and Japan auto shares may be facing a difficult phase
at the moment,” said Kiyoshi Ishigane, a strategist in Tokyo at
Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co., which oversees about $65
billion.

July sales rose 15 percent at Honda to 50,448 units, while
Nissan Motor Co., the nation’s third-largest automaker, sold
50,719 vehicles, a rise of 2.3 percent.

Car sales may fall 300,000 units over two years after a
government subsidy program expires at the end of September, the
Japan Automobile Dealers Association said in its annual report
today.

For the current fiscal year ending in March, in the worst
case scenario, car sales including minicar models may fall to as
low as 450,000 units from 488,000 units a year earlier, the
dealers association said.